Storage battery



Aug- 19, 1941. J. A. ORS-ING f 22535247 STORAGE BATTERY Filed March 14,41959 w rl/15411111!! r///////////'/////////////////////// f/ 56,2 72 45Fa a a. if

Josep/n4. Gea/No ATTORNEY .S

Parenteel Aug. 19,1941

UNITED STATES rn'nm'l"V OFFICE This invention relates to storagebatteries particularly oi the lead-acid type, and has especial yreference to the so-called dry storage `batteries containing'anabsorbent which receives and holds the electrolyte so as to avoid thelikelihood of spillage of the electrolyteii the battery is hel'd orsupported in other than its normal upright position.

The principal object of the present invention Fig'. 2 isa transversesectional View of the .same along the line 2'2 of Fig. 1, the cell shownin Figs. 1 and 2 for the sake of simplicity being shown as provided withone positive plate and f one negative plate only;

' Fig. 3 yisa view si'milar'to Fig. 2 showing a modiiication wherein theabsorbent material is used-'in'con'junc-tion with any of. the well'known porous separators which are commonly' placed is to` provide animproved'form of electrolyte l0 between plates; and

` absorbent which in ilnely divided form is adapted to be mixed with theelectrolyte so as to provide a semi-liquid mixture which can bepoured-and molded in the cell around the battery plates and which in ashort time, sets without perceptible l5 tween the positive and negativeplates of the shrinkage into a highly porous mass which 'is entirelyinert and has no `detrimental effect.

.whatever on the plates and which, on the' other hand,`is believed tohave a favorable action on Fig. 4 is a fragmentary vertical section of alower partof a cell showing a modified form of the invention wherein theelectrolyte absorbent is composed of iiat moldedplates inserted becell.

As stated above, my improved absorbent is composed chieily oftheorganic.l non-polysacevf charidic portion of the zcell walls of woodsor the plates in the way of maintaining the caother vegetablesubstances, and nely divided pacity of the plates and extending the lifeof th battery. l f

My improved yabsorbent may be usedl with or without separators, as willbefexplained in the lignin, humicacid, or.the dried sulphite pulpliquors or a'combination of them have been .mentioned as some, of Athespeciiic materials which may be employed. If lignin is utilized, it-

specication, and while it is preferably poured may be formed in themanner described in the into the battery container so as Vto embed the"plates or the plates and separators if the latter are utilized andleave no unoccupied space in the container to a level above the plates,neverthe- T. A. Wi1lard Patent No. 1,505,990 and 'if humic -acid'isemployed, it 'may' be formed in'any of the .ways described in the'vW. L.v Reinhardt Patent No.1,817,846, but -other methods of producingless in one of the aspects oi the invention my imthese materials may beemployed. I may also may be used vfor this purpose are ilnely dividedlignin, humlcI acid, dried sulphite pulp liquors.y

' or a combination of two or moreof them.l 'The absorbent materialispreferably mixed with the electrolyte, generally sulphuric acidfso .asto form a semi-liquid mixture which can be poured into a battery cel-lorotherwise molded.

The invention is not confined to any particular battery construction,.but in the'accompanying employ a lignin derivative such as described ineither oi.' the Hibbert and Reinhardt Patents Nos.

' 2,079,207 and 2,079,208, or, as stated above, com binations of any ofthe materials stated above may be employed.

' For the raw material I may employ finely di- 'vided woods and otherfinely. dividedvegetable substances Among the woods -which may be usedmight be mentioned oak, spruce, poplar, stances, and 'among the specificmaterials that 40 cedar, etc., and among the other vegetable substancesmight be mentioned corn stalks, com

cobs, and leaves of vegetables and plants of .variouskinda Each of theabsorbents mentioned above consists of a very finely divided' powdergenerally brown incolor.

' Assumingthat my absorbent is used in a bat-` teryef themed-seid type.wherein the electrolyte proper is sulphuric acid,'the` followingprocedure sheet of drawings' I have shown 'slightly difler-4 50 iscarried. out. The finely divided absorbent is ent ways in which thesubject matter ofthe I inventionmay be used and in which- Fig.- 1 is asideview of abatt'ery cell with parts broken' away to show the interiorconstrucf tion; t e f i mixed withsulphuric acid of a suitable specificgravity and with the absorbent and acid in 'suit-Y -able proportions.This is done by pouring the acid into a c 'ontainer into which aquantity oi the 'absorbent lwas :previously placed and constantlyagitating the mass as the acid is added. I prefer to use sulphuric acidhaving a specific gravity of 1.300, and very good results have beenobtained with the proportions of.50 grams of the absorbent, such aslignin, to 70 c. c. (91 grams) of sulphuric acid. Such a mixture issuiiiciently uid to pour as soon as it is mixed and has the consistencyof fairly thin mud. It can be readily poured and it sets in abouttwenty-four hours without material shrinkage into a fairly solid butporous mass. So far as I can determine, no chemical action'takes placeduring the period of setting. While the proportions above mentioned aredesirable, it is not neces'- sary that they be adhered to. For example,I have tried out a mixture of the absorbent and the acid in theproportions of 50 grams of the absorbent to 50 c. c. of acid. 'I'his canbe used but it does not pour a's readily as is `the case with theproportions iirst mentioned. I have also used a higher percentage ofacid than that first mentioned, but I nd that the mixture does not setas readily or in quite as desirable a manner as when the ratio of 50grams of absorbent to '10 c. c. of acid is employed.

While I prefer to use sulphuric acid having a specific gravity oi 1.300,acid having a somewhat lower or a somewhat higher specific gravity maybe employed. One advantage of using an acid having a higher specificgravity is that it is hydroscopic and will absorb moisture to replacethat which has been lost by evaporation. However, acid o f ya specificgravity of 1.300 seems to give the best results from the standpoints ofbattery capacity and battery life.

The advantages of this absorbent are that it is highly porous, it iswholly inert to the battery plates and, I believe, it serves to maintainthe capacity of. the plates since in batteries formed of this materialthe capacity is maintained to a higher degree or to a greater extentthan in. the case of a wet battery using ordinary separators even thoughlignin. or comparable material is introduced into the paste as anexpander, as

f mentioned in the Willard, Reinhardt, and Hibbert and Reinhardt patentsreferred to above. A further important advantage or characteristic of myimproved absorbent or combined absorbent and electrolyte lies in thefact that after the original setting of the mixture, on evaporation orcher loss of the electrolyte the mass or body of the k absorbent retainsthe original shape to which it was molded and set and undergoes nopreceptible shrinkage.

As stated above, my improve-d electrolyte absorbent or combinedabsorbent and electrolyte may be u-sed in various ways and its utilityis wholly independent of any structural details of the battery, andtherefore inthe drawings I have shown a one-cell battery more or lessconventionally or diagrammatically. The battery illustrated in Figs. 1to 3 has a case-ill,` one positive plate ii and one negative plate l2,the plates having upstanding terminal posts i3 extending throughopenings-in the cell cover id, which is provided withy a vent openingl5. In this instance the mixture of absorbent material ,and

'acid hasbeen poured into the cell around the and it can'therefore beturned on its side'or inverted without any danger of spillage. This isdue not only to the fact that all space unoccupied by the plates isiilled by the absorbent and the acid contained'in it, but even thoughthe unoccupied space were not taken up by thel that lost by evaporationand also to prevent possible injury to the absorbent by any instrumentbeing inserted into the battery through the vent opening l5. The stripI6, which is iitted around the terminals I34 as shown in Fig. l, may be'formed of wood, rubber. or other suitable inert porous material.

In some instances it -may be desirable to place ordinary separators,such as wood or porous or microporous rubber separators, between theplates before the mixture is poured into the container. The same resultsmight beA obtained by having the plates held apart by ribs molded on theend walls oi the container so as to project inwardly for a suitabledistance between 'the plates. The advantage of the use of independentseparators is that it avoids the likelihood of the body of absorbentbeing punctured by severe buckling of the plates. In Fig. 3 I have shownthe use of such a separator between the plates, the separator beingdesignated i8. understood that the absorbent-acid mixture will be pouredinto the container as above described,

but in `this instance will embed not only the.

plates but also the separator .or separators. Inasmuch as the battery isotherwise the same as that shown in Figs. l. and 2, a furtherdescription of Fig. 3 is unnecessary.

While I have shown in Figs. l to 3, a battery composed of a single celland containing only one pair of plates, I wish it to be understood thatthe battery may have any number of cells and that each cell may have anydesired number oi plates.

My invention can be used in other ways than illustrated in the drawingwhere the mixture is poured into the 'container around the plates; For

example, I vmay rnold independent separators gage the iiat faces o f theplates.

from the mixture. Generally, these will be at on both sides and they aredesigned to be slipped in to the spaces between the plates as areordinary porous separators', and bear fiat against the surfaces of the4plates on opposite sides thereof.

In view of the high porosity of these separators v it is unnecessary togroove that face of the sepa' rator which is designed to bear againstthe positive plate since the gas evolved from the positive plate canescape through the body of the separator. This embodiment of theinvention is illustrated in Fig. 4 which shows a cell having within thecontainer l@ two negative plates 20 which in this instance bear againstthe' side walls of the container and having one positive plate 2|, theplates being spaced apart by separators 22 which` in this instance areflat on both sides and en- These separators 22 are molded from theacid-absorbent mixture previously described. Additionally. it may bedesirable to incorporate in these separators a small amount of asuitable binder such as sodium silicate, vinylite. Bakelite, or thelike. I may also incorporate in the 'mass a fibrous material such asglass wool, cotton iiock, asbestos, etc. If a `binder such as any ofthose mentioned above'is em- It will be 2,253,247 vplayed,l only a smallamount will be used. In

small quantities the binder will not interfere with the porosity of thematerial to any considerable extent. It is to be understood that if theseparator contains Aa, binder or a ibrous material, or both, a minoramount of the binder and a minor amount of the brous material will beemployed. In other words, the separator will be formed chiefly oi' theorganic non-polysaccharidic portion of the cell walls of wood orothersuitabie vegetable material.

- With all forms of the invention'herein il1us. trated, including theembodiment shown in Fig. '4, there is no free electrolyte 1n the cell,the elec-` trolyte being absorbed and therefore held in the absorbentwhether it wholly surrounds the plates all modiications whichdo'not'involve a.. ture from the spirit and scope of the inventionvdivided humic acid.

or is inthe form of independently molded separators inserted between theplates and spacing them apart. K

In view of the above it will be seen that my invention is susceptible ofbeing used` in various ways and in batteries ci' various types anddesigns, and I therefore aim in my claim to cover deparas defined in theappended claim.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

A storage battery having an electrolyteabsorbent composed chiefly of abody' of finely vJOSEPH A. oasmo.

